One of only a handful
of Confederates to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Joseph Wheeler qualified on
the basis of his later service as a major general of volunteers in the Spanish-American
War. The Georgia-born West Pointer (1859) had resigned his commission as a second
lieutenant in the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen-he had briefly been posted to the dragoons
in 1859-and, joining the South, had a meteoric rise.
The cavalryman's assignments included: first
lieutenant, Artillery (1861); colonel, 19th Alabama (September 4, 1861); commanding
Cavalry Brigade, Left Wing, Army of the Mississippi (September 14-November 20, 1862);
brigadier general, CSA (October 30, 1862); commanding Cavalry Brigade, Polk's Corps, Army
of Tennessee (November 20-22, 1862); commanding Cavalry Brigade, Hardee's Corps, Army of
Tennessee (November 22-December 1862); commanding cavalry division, Army of Tennessee
(December 1862-March 16, 1863); major general, CSA (January 30, 1863); commanding cavalry
corps, Army of Tennessee (March 16, 1863-fall 1864); commanding Cavalry Corps, Department
of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (fall 1864-March 1865); lieutenant general, CSA
(February 28, 1865); and commanding corps, Hampton's Cavalry Command, Army of Tennessee
(March-April 26, 1865).
He led an infantry regiment at Shiloh and
during the operations around Corinth, Mississippi, but was then assigned in the summer of
1862 to be chief of cavalry for Bragg's Army of the Mississippi. He led a mounted brigade
at Perryville and a division at Murfreesboro. Given command of a corps of mounted
troopers, he led it in the Tullahoma Campaign and at Chickamauga was in charge of one of
the two cavalry corps (the other was under Nathan Bedford Forrest). However, soon after
the battle conflicts between Forrest and Wheeler and Forrest and Bragg led to the
reassignment of Forrest. Thus Wheeler was again in charge of all the mounted troops with
the Army of Tennessee. He fought thus at Chattanooga and led his men in the Atlanta
Campaign. During these last two campaigns he was noted for his raids on the Union supply
lines. Following the fall of Atlanta, Wheeler's corps was left behind to deal with Sherman
while Hood launched his invasion of middle Tennessee. With the small force at hand Wheeler
proved unsuccessful in hindering Sherman's March to the Sea.
During the course of the campaign in the
Carolinas, Wheeler was placed under the orders of Wade Hampton who had been transferred
from Virginia. Taken prisoner in Georgia in May 1865, Wheeler was held at Fort Delaware
until June 8th. A longtime congressman from Alabama in the postwar years, he donned the
blue as a major general of volunteers in the war with Spain. In 1900 he was retired with
the regular army rank of brigadier general. His Confederate career had earned him the
sobriquet "Fightin' Joe. " (Dyer, John Percy, "Fightin'joe"
Wheeler andFrom Shiloh to San Juan)
Source: "Who Was Who In The Civil War" by Stewart Sifakis